The Secret of Snakes and Ladders

Snakes and Ladders -- also called Chutes and Ladders in the US -- might look like a simple board game for kids, but it actually goes back thousands of years with deep, meaningful origins. And along the path of creating a morality-based game to help kids navigate the world around them, humans stumbled onto some pretty interesting math.

From reaching nirvana to exploring Markov chains, Snakes and Ladders weaves a surprisingly complex tale of virtue, vice, and dumb luck. So, I decided to electrify it. Literally.

Imaginative engineering YouTuber Allen Pan of Sufficiently Advanced helped me customize an old Snakes and Ladders board by hooking up batteries to the board itself, with conductive position markers and steel line in the game pieces that could make a circuit all the way to the end. And at that final 100th space, a surprise mystery box that I’ve never seen before is activated…

Chutes And Ladders 1943 Photo Courtesy of Toy Tales

*** SOURCES ***

*** LINKS ***

Vsauce2:

Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber

Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor

Editing by Aspect Science

Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber

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[jarredj]

The fact that there’s no strategy to this game can also say that life is random

[haze]

This guy could take an orange and make it sound like the most amazing thing ever.

[Adomas_B]

Stepping on the 99 space snake is like teacher asking to show your homework 1 minute before the class ends

[mafelfanai]

When we were young, when you don't roll the exact number required at the end i.e. 2 for this instance, you go back the number of remainder of the numbers you rolled after you reached the finish. Though I think that's just a rule we made up.

[maeentell]

Who's not surprised that Kevin found the meaning of life from a kid's game.

[Henchman_Holding_Wrench]

Perfect metaphor for life.

You've somehow managed to avoid all those snakes.
Cool. What do I get?
Popup snakes.

[_skzstay]

Ok fun fact... or just something i realized when Kevin mentioned "Learning" and "Greed"

Some Snakes and Ladders boards actually show these as scenes or pictures which depicts what he said,

At a ladder, the square at the bottom of a ladder shows a child studying and at the top is the child graduating "Learning". Another example is a girl watering a plant and at the top shows flowers in full bloom "Perseverance or Patience"

At Snakes, at the head is a boy holding a stick is chasing a dog and at the tail is the dog and the owner of the dog is scolding the boy "Karma or Cruelty."

Those types of Board designs are actually common in our country (Philippines) (i dont know if it is in yours) and i never realized its meaning until now. I just thought of it as fun designs for children to look at.

[alexandraanghel]

Vsause1: and this whole thing is just is it?


Vsause2:and this whole thing is just Its not!

[MindFlowBYT]

You see this absolutely normal potato right? WRONG

[demonic-]

There is always a snake that says:
I am going to destroy your entire career.

[ValensBellator]

I always played “Chutes and Ladders” as a kid and it was maddening lol... man, that whole “one bad choice can undo a dozen good ones” is not only true, but a massive understatement lol

[DorthLous]

The rules usually state "You *may* take the ladder", meaning that there is *some* strategy, albeit minimal.

[Timocracy]

Kevin: Here's a simple, mundane thing.
Also Kevin: Let me cut this sh*t with some math and see what happens.

I love this channel.

[Mystic]

Huh, every version of this game I've played had a big ladder that crosses the big snake, I wonder why this one doesn't?

[moose]

Kevin: Snakes and ladders is a kids game right?
Me: right?
Kevin: WRONG
Me: HoW?!
Kevin: well we can actually use physiology and psychology and chemistry and geology and math an-
Me: is that right?
Kevin: WRONG

[JesusLove]

Kevin could literally make anything sound interesting. He would make for a great school teacher. One that takes a boring class and makes it exciting

[samarthkhandelwal]

Me: Wondering the meaning of life
CGP Grey: Death is the meaning of life
Michael: 42 is the meaning of life
Kevin: WRONG. It's Snakes and Ladders

[cspicer]

I've never seen anybody play without the exact roll(spin) to get to 100. That is literally the most important rule.

[GrrumpyPants]

Needing to roll an exact number to win is incredibly important to how the final stage of the game plays out. With a snake on 99, the winning roll always comes with at least a 50% probably of hitting a snake, as you have a 1 in 6 chance of getting a winning roll, and a 1 in 6 chance of getting one less than that.

[Hoschi.]

Meaning of life

Me: Love
Kevin: Snakes and Ladders
Michael: 42